Sunday, 15 November 2015

The UK cannot boast a single conviction for FGM, compared
to the 100 plus recorded in France.
Why is this? Part of the answer might lie in the nature of the two legal
systems – the inquisitorial in France,
and the adversarial in Britain.

In short, the aim of the French system is to establish
the truth. By contrast, the truth is not relevant to the outcome of a British
criminal trial, (or a criminal trial in any country where the adversarial
system is practised.)

The French system is based on a presumption of
guilt. The process is investigative and works backwards from that premise. In
the adversarial system, all investigation has taken place before the case has
come to trial, after which, two counsels engage in a contest played according
to certain rules.

The onus is
on the prosecuting counsel to prove the guilt of the defendant, ”beyond
reasonable doubt”, and the defendant is presumed innocent. This is one of the
cherished features of our system, frequently commended as a liberty that we
should be proud of. But investigations into miscarriages of justice tend to
begin from the premise that the guilty verdict was correct and work backwards,
finding the essential flaw as it proceeds, i. e. follow the French model.

I suspect
that the adversary system is as likely to let the guilty go free as it is to
condemn the innocent. The daughter of a well known Scottish barrister once told
me of the occasion when her Father was greeted with the words,”You almost had
me believing I didnae do it”, by a notorious Glaswegian hoodlum that he had
just successfully defended!

Tuesday, 10 November 2015

There is always a problem when people do compare things that
should not be compared. In this case I mean FGM and MGM and I am realising each
time I say FGM must end, then someone would say how about MGM. I never said MGM
is good but comparing the two, FGM mutilation is the worst and here is why.

Frankly, the commonly performed version of male circumcision
isn’t as serious as many of the widely performed FGM practices. Yes, removal of
the foreskin causes harm and, despite claims to the contrary, has no detectable
medical benefits, but FGM often goes far further. Leaving aside the horrible
pain that the severe mutilation of a structure as sensitive as the clitoris
causes (to have anything approaching a point of comparison, don’t think of
removal of the foreskin, think instead of someone cutting a chunk out of your
glans) The scarring of the woman’s genital tract can easily result in Obstetric
fistula and complications in pregnancy or birth, assuming that the victim does
not die soon after the initial mutilation occurs due to blood-loss or secondary
infection.

In some forms of FGM, the entire clitoris and most of the
labia are excised in their entirety, and the vaginal opening sewn shut except
for a small aperture left for urine and other bodily secretion, until the
victims wedding night, when the stitching is either cut or ripped open. The
level of physical and emotional trauma the victims suffer is hard to imagine.

Then there is the social context of the respective
behaviours. Removal of the male prepuce, while painful, disturbing and entirely
unnecessary, is viewed primarily as a form of rite of passage – a means of
identifying the victim as part of the in group. While these elements also
feature in FGM, the symbolism goes far further. The labia and clitoris are
removed in a bid to destroy the victim’s ability to experience sexual pleasure,
as an expression of the utter contempt that the cultures and religions that
perform this horrific abuse hold women and female sexuality in. It is believed
that by removing these structures, women will not be ‘tempted’ to take charge
of their own sexuality. Further, some cultures believe that by excising the
seat of female sexual pleasure you also remove a component of the woman’s free
will, thus rendering her more biddable. It is a twisted attempt at
sympathetic-magic-based mind-control.

Finally, there is in some ways the most horrific and
repugnantly misogynist component of all – in no small degree FGM is performed in
pursuit of the aesthetic preferences and perceived convenience of the men of
these cultures. It is a concrete expression of the idea within these societies
that women aren’t actual people at all – that they exist as mere chattel for
men, to be used for the pleasure and gratification of men and discarded at the
whim of men.

Given all these factors, comparing male circumcision and FGM
as somehow equivalent is highly inappropriate, and may easily be interpreted as
an attempt to dismiss the suffering, and silence the voices, of women by means
of a wilfully facile comparison to a superficially similar cultural rite that
doesn’t cause anything approaching the same level of physical harm or carry the
same toxic social baggage.

Quotes

Married to a Devil

About Me

Welcome to my blog!
I hope you find it interesting. If there is nothing of interest today,please keep on checking. You may never know what tomorrow has.
I write about issues that affect women mostly in the underdeveloped parts of the world. My first book is called 'Married to a Devil'.
Don't get me wrong,I also write about men.
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